Passengers: Power outages, overflowing toilets on another Carnival cruise ship

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(CNN) -- A vacation cruise aboard the Carnival Dream in the Caribbean is quickly becoming a nightmare, a month after a fire crippled another Carnival ship in the Gulf of Mexico.

Several passengers aboard the Dream have contacted CNN, telling stories of power outages and overflowing toilets, all while docked in port at Philipsburg, St. Maarten, in the eastern Caribbean.

"We are not allowed off of the boat despite the fact that we have no way to use the restrooms on board," Jonathan Evans of Reidsville, North Carolina, said in an e-mail early Thursday. "The cruise director is giving passengers very limited information and tons of empty promises. What was supposed to take a hour has turned into 7-plus hours."

The Dream was scheduled to leave port around 5 p.m. ET Wednesday.

The U.S. Coast Guard said Thursday it was notified by Carnival that the Dream is experiencing generator issues. Carnival has not requested assistance from the Coast Guard, which has no jurisdiction in the ship's current location, Coast Guard Petty Officer Jon-Paul Rios told CNN.

Carnival does what it has to do to "hold the line", since their core passenger demographic is very (how to put this politely) VERY price sensitive. The cruise world is an area in which there is a direct relation between what you're willing to pay and the experience you get. When we were taking our first cruise, we started with an itinerary in mind, then chose the line we wanted by the features that were important to us. We chose the line that spent the most time in the places we had chosen, had ships that were NOT floating cities, and was all-inclusive so we weren't paying bar tabs and tips every time we turned around. The selection we made was perfect for us, and we've done four trips with them so far.

"Today, [the American voter] chooses his rulers as he buys bootleg whiskey, never knowing precisely what he is getting, only certain that it is not what it pretends to be." - H.L. Mencken

Carnival does what it has to do to "hold the line", since their core passenger demographic is very (how to put this politely) VERY price sensitive. The cruise world is an area in which there is a direct relation between what you're willing to pay and the experience you get. When we were taking our first cruise, we started with an itinerary in mind, then chose the line we wanted by the features that were important to us. We chose the line that spent the most time in the places we had chosen, had ships that were NOT floating cities, and was all-inclusive so we weren't paying bar tabs and tips every time we turned around. The selection we made was perfect for us, and we've done four trips with them so far.

Understood but "holding the line" is going to get a boat load of people killed one day. There have already been close calls, I remember a few years ago there was a ship leaving Miami that got hit by a rogue wave and had a ton of damage done to it. I can just see something like that happening to a Carni Cruise ship one hurricane season. Boat goes out, engines die, hurricane pops up, ship goes down, Carni goes belly up. Only happy people are the lawyers.

(CNN) -- Carnival Cruise Lines will fly all passengers on one of its cruises back to Florida after the ship suffered a generator failure while docked in the Caribbean.

Captain Massimo Marino told passengers they will be booked on flights to Orlando or another destination. Passengers with cars at Port Canaveral will be bused from Orlando to the facility about an hour away.

The letter also offers passengers a three-day refund and a half-price cruise in the future.

The captain said passengers could "enjoy another day in beautiful St. Maarten" or stay onboard for a "full schedule" of activities.